We had a great Fair once again this year and the volunteers who pulled it all together deserve tremendous thanks. We had a record year in attendance since we relocated the Fair to our home in Unity. Roughly 51,000 people came through the gates.

This was our fifth Fair in Unity, and by most accounts, we are really settling into our home. Fair coordinators and their respective crews of volunteer helpers are gaining experience and confidence in running their areas, and everything seems to be going much more smoothly from set-up through take-down.

We do have some challenges in store for next year however, and we are already starting to plan for them. The biggest priorities are to find additional coordinators for some key areas of the Fair. These include: Composting & Recycling; the Children’s Area; the Food Vendors’ Area; Entertainment; Audio/Visual Presentations; and Agricultural Demonstrations. If you are interested in getting more involved with the Fair Planning Team and possibly helping with one of these areas, please let us know! We would love to hear from you.

Another priority will be to build more benches and picnic tables where people can sit and relax. Each year we build a few, but we know we need lots more, especially as the crowd continues to grow.

It is a pleasure to work with all of the volunteers who make the Fair happen each year. Thank you so much for all you have done for the Fair and for MOFGA.

Many thanks to all of the businesses that sold Advance Tickets to the 2002 Common Ground Country Fair. Selling tickets in advance is a great service to fairgoers who can walk right to the front of the line and spend all of their time at the Fair, not waiting to buy tickets. We hope that by selling Advance Tickets you got some new customers who have become regular customers. Ticket sales not only support the Common Ground Country Fair itself, but also contribute to many of MOFGA’s year-round programs, such as organic certification, apprenticeship, technical services and more. Best wishes for a successful business year. We hope to work with you again next year.

The crew in the Common Kitchen served more than 3,000 delicious meals this year. That’s correct – three thousand meals! Great job everyone. You really did a wonderful job keeping all the volunteers fueled up and ready to go. A special thanks goes out the following individuals, farms and businesses whose generous donations of organic, locally grown food made our volunteer meals healthy, tasty and affordable. We greatly appreciate your generosity!